Astronomy Course Quiz 2017

To get a Certificate of Achievement for taking the 2016 Bruce Betts Introduction to Planetary Science and Astronomy class, a Random Space Fact (RSF) is given in each class designed to be "the" RSF that users will have to recognize later to get the certificate.

Note: even the "incorrect" choices will be valid scientific facts, just not those identified in the classes.

Transneptunian objects are very large, a few are larger than Ceres, the biggest asteroid, and many are larger than Pallas and Vesta the second and third largest asteroids.

Tidal effects that Pluto and Charon exert on each other have locked the two bodies into mutual spin-orbit resonance, meaning that one face of Charon always looks at Pluto while one face of Pluto always looks at Charon.

Triton is the only large moon in the solar system to orbit retrograde, the opposite direction of Neptune's rotation.

Five spacecraft on trajectories to leave the solar system: Pioneers 10 and 11, Voyagers 1 and 2, and New Horizons.

Lecture 11: The Outer Solar System and Origin of the Solar System

Each LightSail spacecraft is about the size of a loaf of bread.

Comet tails always point approximately away from (the opposite direction from) the Sun.

The Deep Impact mission slammed a ball of copper into a comet at high speeds.

Self-gravitational collapse of gas and dust began the formation of the Solar System.

Lecture 12: Exoplanets, the Sun, and Solar Physics

As of 2016, most of the exoplanets known were discovered using Kepler spacecraft

The Kepler spacecraft repeatedly observed approximately 150,000 stars in the constellation Cygnus.

Most exoplanets have been discovered either using the radial velocity method or the transit method.

The radial velocity technique uses Doppler shifts to observe the wobble of a star caused by one or more planets.

Lecture 13: The Sun (cont.) and Stars

The Sun has the mass equivalent to approximately 333,000 Earths.

The star Betelgeuse in Orion is bigger than the size of Mars' orbit, and possibly as large as Jupiter's.

The Earth Moon system (384,000) would easily fit within the diameter of the Sun (1.4 million km).

The gravity at the surface of a neutron star is more than 100 billion times the gravity at the surface of the Earth.

Lecture 14: Galaxies, the Universe, and Life

All Earth life requires liquid water.

The Milky Way Galaxy is approximately 100,000 light years across.

The age of the universe is approximately 13.8 billion years old (time since the Big Bang).

The Andromeda Galaxy, 2 million light years away, can be seen with the unaided eye from a dark viewing location.

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